January 9, 2018University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine names William Gerthoffer, Ph.D., as Acting Senior Associate Dean for Research

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The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine has named William Gerthoffer, Ph.D. as acting senior associate dean for research effective Jan. 1 through July 31, 2018.

Gerthoffer will serve in the role as UNR Med does a national search for a permanent senior associate dean for research - a role that James Kenyon, Ph.D. held for five years at the School of Medicine before retiring in December.

In his position, Gerthoffer will oversee all UNR Med basic science, clinical and translational research activities. These include research discovering causes and treatments for muscular dystrophies, gastrointestinal and cardiac disorders, HIV, infertility, cancer and infectious diseases. UNR Med received $23 million in research funding in 2017 and more than $236 million in research funding in the past decade. Dr. Gerthoffer will continue this tradition of excellence by collaborating with faculty and investigators on research proposals and grants.

"Dr. Gerthoffer possesses impressive medical and academic expertise. It is tremendous to have someone of his caliber agree to take on this important leadership role with our research teams and continue the expansive growth that began under Dr. Kenyon," said University of Nevada, Reno, School of Medicine Dean, Thomas L. Schwenk, M.D. "I am confident Dr. Gerthoffer will provide significant guidance, developing research and mentorship programs for our medical students, residents, fellows and faculty members, as well as research funding opportunities key to improving health outcomes in our state and world."

Gerthoffer recently retired as Chair of Biochemistry at the University of South Alabama where he served for the past 10 years. Prior to that, he served as a faculty member of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine from 1982 to 2007 and served as the first graduate program director of the Cell and Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology graduate program. He was a visiting scientist in the Molecular and Integrative Physiology program at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. Gerthoffer also worked at the laboratory of molecular cardiology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Gerthoffer was named a University of Nevada, Reno Foundation Professor in 2003 and received the Joe Rodarte Award from the American Thoracic Society in 2017. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Waynesburg College in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. Gerthoffer completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Section of Cardiovascular Sciences, Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and served as a research associate in the department of physiology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. His primary research interest is smooth muscle physiology and pharmacology, which has been supported by American Heart Association and NIH funding for the past 35 years.

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